Trip To The Jersey Shore

[Ariel 109]

That boat looks like it came right out of Pirates of the Caribbean.

That's good!  I'll certainly be thinking that for now on when I sail by her.  And I would say she is about 45' long not counting the bowsprit.

Saturday there is a classic wooden boat regatta up in Greenwich and the S-Boats are taking part.  I know that some pretty spectacular old boats are going to be there.  So I should have some more pictures to post real soon.

[ebb]

Sweet lines.  Looks like a cutter, from the single mast and bowsprit.  Strictly sail.
Cronkite owned a number of boats that  got larger and wider as time went by.

They all look like single malt and filet mignon yachts with biminis and pilot houses.
Maybe someone at  the regatta can put a name on her?

He owned a Westsail 42 cutter,  but that can't be it in your photo.
He also had an Al Mason designed Sunward 48' ketch,  that is to die for.... if you got the hat.
google: SUNWARD 48 Sailboat details on sailboatdata.com

an affectionate tribute:
google: Cronkite: a sailor in a news anchor's chair
//www.soundingsonline.com

[Ariel 109]

Ebb I'll get to the bottom of this Walter Cronkite rumor.  All the old codgers on City Island have a Uncle Walter story.  Somebody has got to know.

We took the S-Boats up to Greenwich this evening.  Some amazing boats arrived as we were mooring.  Here's the bow of Nellie a Herreshoff from 1902.    

[Ariel 109]

Some shots from yesterday's regatta.  The overcast sky played havoc with my old trusty digital camera.  But quite a day of sailing.  

Nellie a N. G. Herreshoff  design from 1903





Nor'easter IV John Alden Q-Class design from 1926

[Ariel 109]

Great book, written in the early 1980's.  

"The dictionary does the word proud.  To coast is to proceed without great effort, to move by momentum or force of gravity, to march on the flank of, to skirt, to sail from port to port of the same country, to explore or scour, to bicycle downhill without pedaling, and to slide down a slope on a sled.  The coaster--as my school report pointed out in no uncertain terms--is someone who uses the minimum of effort to go down a slippery slope on the margin of things."

[Ariel 109]

In one of those Francis Herreshoff books I read over the summer he mentions the importance of keeping a copy of this book aboard your yacht at all times.  This is not the Arthur Quiller-Couch edition but close enough.  Bought as somewhat of a personal joke I've found out it's a wonderful book to read.  The mind being so receptive after sailing.

"Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!
Throughout the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name."

[Ariel 109]

One of those books too old and musty to be worth reading?  I found it magnificent, really worth the time.  This edition has a nice introduction, includes an extensive dictionary of nautical terms and is cheap!

[Ariel 109]

First paying boat project!  Building a new rudder for the Herreshoff S-boat Iroquois.  She broke her mooring in a violent storm about a month ago and narrowly escaped destruction thanks to a good Samaritan who pulled her off a rocky beach in the middle of the night.  Her lead ballast was mushroomed and rudder bashed as she bounced up and down on some rocks.  Anyhow it could have been far worse, one less life out of nine!

The owner and I went up to the Berkshires last week and visited a sawmill called New England Naval Timbers, that supplies seasoned white oak for many of the wooden boat builders in New England.  What a nice experience!  Came back with a beautiful long piece of rift sawn 12/4 that should make a nice rudder.  Start tomorrow and I'll post pictures of the progress.  An Ariel rudder isn't all that different.  And what about that rudderless Pearson Vanguard? Good grief!

[Ariel 109]

A British Seagull outboard, just like a good old Raleigh 3 speed bicycle.  Part of all the junk that was aboard Ariel 109 when I cleaned out the cabin right after I got her.  Hans did a workman like job of getting the old girl going again.  I think it makes 2-3hp.  It's kind of fun to motor around on the dingy.  Will we all get fat now from lack of rowing?

[Ariel 109]

This book is from the Time Reading Program.  A series of book reissues done by Time Life back in the Sixties.  Some of the best used bookstore treasures I've found have come from this series.  

"Logbook For Grace" is the story of a 1912 voyage on one of the last sailing whalers by the naturist Robert Murphy from the New York Museum of Natural History.  It's based on letters that Murphy wrote to his new bride Grace during the year he was away.  Nice book!



Found these pictures taken by Robert Murphy on the voyage described in the book.  The first is of the Daisy, Captain Benjamin Cleveland's whaler.  The second is of a "Nantucket Sleigh Ride" during the harpooning of a sperm whale.  Wooden ship and iron men!

[Ariel 109]

Another wonderful book by Jonathan Raban.   Your missing out if you haven't read anything by this writer.  

This book portrait, shot on the Johnny B's dock came out very atmospheric!

[Ariel 109]

Today's "nor'easter" came through and the abandoned sailboats of City Island started breaking their mooring lines.  This still nice San Juan 24 has beached herself here a few times over the past year.  Last word is she's back afloat and anchored.

[commanderpete]

I have to admit that I've also put my boat on the rocks at City Island.

Next year I'll have to come over for a visit

[ebb]

Haven't read this guy yet.
He has a website with a photo across the top of a guy single-handing a skipjack of our proportions.

We thankfully don't do politics here.
But I did read some of his de Tocquevillesque (1835) observations on Democrasy in America.
A reviewer quoted on his blog calls him 'sane' - among other compliments.
I read his thoughts on Palin, and he is much much saner than I will ever be.

Think I'll get this book you recommend.
He obviously has a fine lively sane intellectual mind.  Sanity is  rare in this age.  Refreshing in an intellectual!
Looking through some of the reviews:  
More than just a travel book,  It's a journal that tries to get to 'the meaning of the sea.' through native history, personal catastrophy, 'the dark sea within'.
He takes this vovage alone on a 35' ketch.

I have to find out how he keeps his sanity!

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE SEA?
(not even google can get you there.)

[Ariel 109]

Commander Peter, would be great to have a visit from you at City Island.  Your landing spot is very close to where Noesis was moored this summer.  What's that lovely little boat, did you build it?  

Ebb, I think you'd enjoy Raban's writing.  He takes so many interesting side paths in his writing, sharing and opening up all these ideals.  He gives great book recommendations in all his books.  I'm searching for a reasonably priced copy of Hilare Belloc's "Cruise of the Nona" because Raban mentions this book in "Coasting" and makes it sound so interesting.